Page 32 of From That Moment
Hazel was the one who spoke. “Because you’re not family, or on whatever list they have. Okay. I’m going to go see what I can find out.” She hurried off, and Cross stood in front of her, his gaze burning holes into me.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” he asked, and I swallowed hard, then looked up at my big brother.
“We were getting off work, heading to our cars. I went one way, and she went the other since we didn’t park on the same side of the building. Then I heard a scuffle or something, and her scream, and I ran towards her. But I was too late. I didn’t see who it was, just someone wearing all black and a hat, which doesn’t help at all.”
“You got her here. That’s all that matters for now,” Cross said, and I shook my head.
“It doesn’t feel like it. It feels like I should have been there. Should’ve waited until she got into her car and drove off. Instead, I left her alone.”
“You had no reason to think she was going to get attacked in your parking lot. You can’t blame yourself for this.”
“Can’t I? I said I’d make sure she was safe.”
“You’re doing that now.”
Cross paused, and I looked up at him. “What?”
“You think it was that guy at work that pisses you off?” he asked, and I blinked. The idea hadn’t even occurred to me. I’d had my head so far up my ass that I hadn’t gotten past my own guilt to think who could have done this.
“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. Hell. I don’t think Benji would get violent. Jesus. I didn’t even tell the cops that he and Paris had an issue. I will. I’ll tell them right now. She would. Right?”
“Unless she doesn’t want to make waves at work.”
“Fuck. You’re right. She hates being seen as weak. Feels like she can’t be anything but strong, and with some of the people that work there, I can see that actually being an issue.”
Cross stared at me for a minute, and I blinked.
“What?” I asked.
“You seem to be spending a lot of time with Paris these days.”
I flipped him off, ignoring a gasping sound from the woman next to us.
“Here?Thisis where you’re going to have that talk with me?”
“Sorry.” Cross closed his eyes and let out a breath. “It’s just bringing up memories again. You know?”
“At first, I thought the only memories that would come back for us was every time we saw Arden in a hospital bed all hooked up to a bunch of machines and in pain. Now, it’s you and Macon. And even Hazel.”
“You didn’t see Hazel on the ground, bloody, and left tied up. I never want to see that again, not even in my dreams. And yet, here we are, with another of us hurt.”
“Doesn’t make any sense to me,” I said, frowning.
“What doesn’t make any sense to you?” Cross asked.
“That this keeps happening. I know we’ve lived in a decently safe bubble, even with the issues we had before. I still can’t believe that she’s hurt like this. And there’s fucking nothing we can do about it.”
“She made it this far because you were there to help her.”
“Maybe. But if I had only been a second faster, or if I hadn’t let her go off on her own, we wouldn’t be here at all.”
“I’m going to tell you something that you’ve told me before.”
“And what is that?” I asked, nervous.
“If you spend the rest of your life on what-ifs, you’re going to hurt yourself and those you love in the end. So, focus on what you can do. And while we’re figuring that out, we can wait and see how Paris is doing. Because she’s going to be okay, right? There’s no other option.”
I nodded at Cross’s words, knowing that he was right. And Ihadsaid something similar to him when we were all worried about each other. So, I would wait. And I would hope to hell that Paris was going to be okay. She was my friend. My coworker. Nothing more than that. But hell, I just wanted her to be okay.